Echo devices are stationary devices (e.g., placed on a surface, such as a tabletop) that can provide various functions for one or more users in an environment. For instance, echo devices can answer questions posed by a user, read news, report traffic and weather, and the like. However, echo devices do not distinguish between a group query (where the answer to the query is intended to be shared with a group) and an individual query (where the answer to the query is to be provided to the source of the query and not shared with others). Consequently, echo devices usually broadcast an answer to a query in an omni-directional fashion. However, for individual queries that request personal information (e.g., “What is the balance of my bank account?”), it is generally inappropriate to broadcast the answer in an omni-directional way, since this may result in sharing the personal answer with other users proximate to the echo device. Moreover, because echo devices do not distinguish between individual and group queries, echo devices are generally not able to support simultaneous queries from multiple users, while simultaneously providing individual answers to the queries.
Furthermore, echo devices do not support display of information (e.g., images, video, text, and the like) in response to a query. Instead, echo devices are limited to audio answers to queries. Hence, echo devices do not project or display information towards the source of a query, and are thus limited in the type and amount of information they can provide in answer to a query.
Moreover, echo devices are limited to audio input (e.g., a spoken query) and do not provide other forms of input, such as via a keyboard projected from the echo device. Consequently, echo devices are not configured with adequate security for a user to access the echo device.